US government shutdown: Democrats and Republicans no closer to deal

Democrats and Republicans appeared no closer to a deal this morning as America
woke up to its first government shutdown in 17 years.

Nearly 12 hours after Congress missed its deadline to fund the government and keep 800,000 federal employees at work, the two sides remained locked in a game of brinkmanship over Republican demands to delay the implementation of Obamacare.

This morning Senate Democrats rejected an overnight offer from Republicans in the House of Representatives to begin formal negotiations, leaving the parties as far apart as they were yesterday morning.

"We have a situation where we have a good day for the anarchists," said Senator Harry Reid, the Democrat leader, as the Senate voted to reject proposals for talks.

President Barack Obama meanwhile tried to keep the pressure on Republicans, writing to the government's 2 million employees to say Congress had "treated you like a punching bag".

"Congress has failed to meet its responsibility to pass a budget before the fiscal year that begins today. And that means much of our government must shut down effective today," he wrote.

John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House, last night insisted that Democrats in the Senate "accept our offer to go to conference and discuss this so we can resolve this for the American people".

The president was due to speak from the White House shortly after noon to attack his Republican opponents on Capitol Hill over their demand that delay implementation of Obamacare by a year.

Although the government had been shut down over the Republican opposition to the law, key parts of Obamacare went into force as scheduled this morning.

Across the country, state healthcare "exchanges" - regulated markets for the uninsured to shop for insurance plans - opened up and the government's new healthcare website, healthcare.gov, went live.

But the long-awaited roll out did not go entirely smoothly and many of the exchange websites suffered glitches. Maryland's website was crashed altogether early on Tuesday while many others reported problems.

Mr Obama said he was not surprised that were issues, telling NPR news: "In the first week, first month, first three months, I would suspect that there will be glitches."

The president was due to meet in the Oval Office with a small group of Americans who would be able to access health insurance because of the law.

While the political stalemate continued in Washington DC, the real-world impact of the shutdown began to be felt across the United States.

The federal government is the single biggest employer in the US and economists estimate that its partial closure would cost around $300 million a day in lost economic output.

The Statue of Liberty was closed as were America's national parks and the museums along the National Mall in Washington. The writing of pay cheques to federal employees began to slow and passport applications were delayed.

Politicians in both parties are now waiting to see who the public will blame for the first shut down since Bill Clinton faced down Congressional Republicans in early 1996.

Initial opinion polls make encouraging reading for the White House, with a Quinnipiac poll finding 72 per cent of Americans saying they opposed the Republican strategy of shutting down the government unless Obamacare was delayed.

The poll found that while voters disapproved of Democrats in Congress by a 60-32 margin, they disapproved even more strongly of Republicans at 74-17.

A small minority of moderate Republicans began to balk last night at their leadership's insistence on tying funding of the federal government to Obamacare.

John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, predicted his party would cave eventually. "We can't win," he said. "Republicans will be perceived as blocking and as shutting down the government."